Chapter 5

Question 1

Is crime objective?

Answer 1

No it is subjective and the outcome of human interaction.

Question 2

What era did labelling theory emerge in?

Answer 2

1960’s, era of disintegrated social order, youth culture, 2nd wave feminism, civil rights movement, sexual liberation.

Question 3

What is the definition of crime?

Answer 3

Crime is defined by social action and reaction and by those with the power to label.

Question 4

What is the focus of analysis?

Answer 4

Relationship between offender and those with the power to label.

Question 5

What is the cause of crime?

Answer 5

Stigmatization and negative effects of labeling.

Question 6

What is the nature of offender?

Answer 6

Nothing specific just someone identified as criminal by labelling process.

Question 7

How do you prevent crime?

Answer 7

Decriminalize victimless and harmless crimes, practice radical non-intervention.

Question 8

How are those without power disadvantaged in this theory?

Answer 8

They are more vulnerable to being labelled as deviant and then facing the subsequent negative effects.

Question 9

What are some of the main impacts of labeling of offenders?

Answer 9

Stigmatization that can lead to taking on the role of criminal and fulfilling it (self prophecy).

People who have been labelled with seek the company of other criminally labelled people (and then be further immersed in criminality)

Young people who are labelled are very likely to embark on a life of crime.

Question 10

How does it link to symbolic interactionist perspective in sociology?

Answer 10

The concepts of “self” and “symbol”, and how individual people react differently to social situations.

Question 11

What is “looking glass self”?

Answer 11

Your image of yourself is what you see reflected in those around you.

Question 12

People respond to situations by….?

Answer 12

Reading the symbols around them.

Question 13

What are typifications?

Answer 13

The base of interaction.

Question 14

What is the 1st step in communication? Why is it important?

Answer 14

Defining situations through interactions, because if both people don’t share the same definitions there can be miscommunication.

Question 15

How is deviance subjective in this theory?

Answer 15

It depends on the reaction to the action. If it is defined as deviant and involves interaction with the justice system, then it is seen as deviant.

Question 16

What is primary deviance? What are the causes?

Answer 16

It is the initial deviant behaviour that most people engage in at some point. This deviance is a passing event, experiences no formal reaction and does not change the identity of the offender. The causes are not explained with this theory.

Question 17

What is secondary deviance?

Answer 17

When individuals engage in primary deviance but then face a formal reaction with the justice system. Then they are officially labelled and this changes their self-concept.

Question 18

What are some contemporary applications of labelling theory?

Answer 18

Restorative justice, reintegrative shaming, and general processes of the juvenile criminal justice system.

Question 19

What is cultural criminology’s view on labelling process? Who is behind it?

Answer 19

The labelling process can be part of motivation for people to engage in criminality because it is exciting and thrilling (sometimes because of the risk of being caught). Katz 1988

Question 20

What is the focus of phenomenological theory?

Answer 20

Understanding why people do what they do.

Question 21

What is crime according to phenomenological theory?

Answer 21

Interrelationship between meaning and emotion experienced by those involved.

Question 21

According to phenomenological theory, how does control of social perspectives occur?

Answer 21

Through the media

Question 22

How do cultural criminologists see crime?

Answer 22

Located within everyday events of subcultural expression and attempts by the crime control industry to control and manage those expressions.

Question 23

What does loss of control in lives have to do with criminal activity?

Answer 23

When people lose control of certain aspects of their lives, they may engage in risky behaviour to try and reclaim some control.

Question 24

How has labelling theory affected policy development?

Answer 24

Youth diversion programs, youth criminal justice act, pre court programs.

Question 25

What are the main critiques of labelling theory?

Answer 25

Offers no explanation of why people commit primary deviance, does not explain serious crimes, does not explain why some people do not succumb to their labels, does not explain crime with cross-cultural agreement (i.e. murder, rape)

Question 26

How do some activists respond to labelling?

Answer 26

They might not be affected by a negative or criminal label because they believe in their hearts they are on the right side.

Question 27

What are some more uncommon responses to labelling?

Answer 27

Seeing it as a right of passage in certain communities.

Question 28

What are the three outcomes that negative labels influence perception of?

Answer 28

Treatment amenability , dangerousness, legal sanction/sentence.

Question 29

What is the net widening theory of labelling?

Answer 29

Diversion from justice system could draw more people into crime, especially if the diversion is very intrusive.

Question 30

What is denser nets in net widening?

Answer 30

Diversionary programs as more intrusive in individual lives than the traditional justice system.

Question 31

What is broader nets in net widening?

Answer 31

People may be brought into the criminal justice system where previously they would’ve had no contact.

Question 32

What is different nets?

Answer 32

The social control/labelling can remain without criminal control other different forms (psychiatric or medical control).

Question 33

What is the response to crime?

Answer 33

Diversion from the justice system, no formal labelling unless necessary, no judicial interaction if a small scale offence.

Question 34

What are some of the differences between the youth and adult system?

Answer 34

Closed court and publication ban, private criminal record mostly scrubbed when 18, conditional sentences, maximum sentence of 10 years*, incarceration as last resort.

Question 35

What ologies widely influenced labelling perspectives?

Answer 35

Social psychology, phenomenology, ethmethodology.

Question 36

What is the general process of self fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 36

1. Negative labelling
2. Stigmatization
3. New identity
4. Commitment to new identity

Question 37

Radical non-intervention

Answer 37

Concept wherein we just stop intervening on people’s deviance.

Question 38

What is Matza’s drift theory?

Answer 38

Youth drift between unconventional and conventional behaviour but are not permanently delinquent unless they face official intervention.

Question 39

Why are kids who have been formally processed more likely to reoffend?

Answer 39

They internalize labels, learn criminality in juvie, their social skills regress, suffer mental illness, have minor technical breaches that re-jail them.